Advertisement

Register for free to remove this ad

I just got puzzle craft yesterday and so far I do like what I am seeing. Couple of things though. I've reached level 10 but so far pigs haven't been a problem for me. I see where they could be but they haven't yet. To me with this game I feel like I need to take my time. I mean the game only gives you so much gold, gold that you need to farm so you can get supplies, supplies which you can use to go to the mine so you can get minerals to help build stuff. My think is if I play to fast I might run out of gold quickly and then I either have to wait to collect taxes or feel like I almost need to make one of those IAPs. Aside from that my only other issue is getting a LOT of building block, quickly. It seems like everything needs building block but it also seems hard to get a lot of building block.

Despite all that I would happily recommend this game to those who are looking for something different to try. It is definitely a game unlike any I've played recently.

Originally Posted by Sophita From what i've played Max Payne 1 actually plays pretty well for an Ipad port of a PC game though it prolly helps the game starts you out on the easiest setting it seems like as the default. Though you can play the higher levels when you complete it on the previous difficulty. But overall having fun from the hour i've played. Modern Combat 3, well it looks good, I guess, it plays horribly all I can do is just spin in circles and randomly fire at people. You have to move with a virtual keypad, aim while gliding your finger around, and then also hit a separate fire button that with the "realistic" recoil pushes your aim up. It makes doing simple things like moving and firing at the same time a small feat. It feels like I am playing as a one legged duck that has a gun strapped to it's back.

do you use the auto-targeting in MC3?

Originally Posted by vlv723 Interesting article to read regarding SquareEnix pricing schemes on iOS devices: http://www.theverge.com/2012/8/27/32...t-do-you-think

"If we want to have something more than 'Gameloft' versions of our favorite games on our smartphones, then we must show developers that yes, we will pay for it."

That's funny because most of these acclaimed Square Enix games are ports. Then we have original games like FF Dimensions and Chaos Rings which seem more like Gameloft versions of SE games.

Originally Posted by DaFees Despite all that I would happily recommend this game to those who are looking for something different to try. It is definitely a game unlike any I've played recently.

Gotta disagree. I think Puzzle Craft breaks itself over several issues. Even though you never seem to need to buy IAP, it's got an IAP based economic structure built in that always hovers over you. Buying things with gold always seems taboo, for example (and gold prices are absolutely exorbitant anyway, clearly priced for IAP).

Buildings that have real timer based actions (taxes every two hours, etc) also show that this game was designed around deeply annoying IAP principles, and not 'pro-gamer/fun' principles.

The game itself has the wrong pacing. Everything is limited, and you're always running out of turns. Doing well (say, long chains) often just clogs your screen as it upgrades you to the next 'good' thing, but w/o the proper tools and upgrades, that's actually a bad thing most of the time.

The massive disconnect between tool prices and resource earning makes tool buying an exercise in frustration. As you mentioned, many items require the same exact hard to get resource... which is fine in theory, but absolutely annoying in practice.

For example, wood. You need wood for a rake (grass clearer), and for the shovel (dirt clearer). Both of these tools are critical for farming, and mining, respectively... but wood can only be earned while farming. And of course, wood is needed for many other tools as well. So if you farm, and you spend all your wood on mining tools, next time you farm you're SOL. If you split half and half, you're crippled in both. Etc. It's just plain frustrating.

I think if the game was designed around FUN, and game play, and not IAP, they'd have a super-massive hit on their hands. A game that rewarded long matches with tools or time extensions, for example. A game that didn't have IAP currency built into it's play structure (spend 30 to farm, for example)....

ugh. I want to love this game, but i hated it so much i ended up deleting it. i found myself going back to it, hoping it might get better, and being more disappointed every session.

Originally Posted by envelopes yeah. :-) I wouldn't be saying it if developers hadn't spent years abusing our trust. There's a reason we're all frightened when we see a new update to a game. Always best to wait to make sure it doesn't put in ads, add IAP, crash on load, erase your saves, etc. Oh hey! Here's a sale: Final fantasy dimensions http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/final...540992837?mt=8 only $28.99

Showing up as free. What gives?

Originally Posted by bombfirst885 Showing up as free. What gives?

Only the prologue is free.

Percepto dropped to free.
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/perce...419502225?mt=8
This has been on my wishlist for so long for who knows what reason, and jumps up and down between like $1 and $4, and I'm glad to finally get it off of there.

Originally Posted by affa Gotta disagree. I think Puzzle Craft breaks itself over several issues. Even though you never seem to need to buy IAP, it's got an IAP based economic structure built in that always hovers over you. Buying things with gold always seems taboo, for example (and gold prices are absolutely exorbitant anyway, clearly priced for IAP).

Gold prices for tools are reasonable. I frequently bought small quantities of tools if I lacked the resources. I pretty much only bought the shovel, the lamp, the rake, and (when I needed them) one each of whatever collected the most valuable resource at the time.

For buildings, the prices are crazy and unreasonable.

I think Puzzle Craft is fine except for the pacing. The pacing is too slow and feels (to me) to be designed to get you to buy gold. I never had to, though, and I have pretty much completed everything you can do.

I think the biggest thing is that the resource drain makes the game a slog. You need to farm and mine, and often you need to do both in order to have enough resources to do anything. Even late in the game, I found myself lacking iron (of all things). I eventually got to the point where I could mine diamonds and gold and sell them for iron, but still.

I liked that the match-3 game was constantly changing, but for something you had to do over and over, it didn't change enough. Also, the game seems fundamentally uninteresting in and of itself. It's solely to get resources. You don't really get anything for great combos, chaining isn't even an element, and it begins to feel more like work than fun. Certain aspects -- the vermin and the exploding gas -- are downright annoying even after you gain the abilities to deal with them.

So, most of the game, you've got the goal of that next thing that's just out of your reach (which is fine) but you have to grind farming and mining to get there. There were way too many times I looked at my resources and said "I have to farm again? Gah." In a really good game, I wouldn't mind how often I had to mine and farm because it would be fun.

Originally Posted by envelopes Percepto dropped to free. http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/perce...419502225?mt=8 This has been on my wishlist for so long for who knows what reason, and jumps up and down between like $1 and $4, and I'm glad to finally get it off of there.

Thank You for being perceptive about Percepto...see what I did there? Downloaded.

I finished Puzzle Craft a few days ago, and towards the end, it was definitely a chore. I hadn't been using tools the majority of the game. All these buildings would generate tools, but I just stockpiled them.

By the end of the game, farming and mining was taking like a 100 turns, as I just blasted through my tools, trying to get everything I needed to get to level 25 and build that castle.

At that point, I had about 6000 gold stockpiled, so I used it to buy the resources I was lacking, built the castle, and deleted the game.

Glad it was done.

If I may, I know I seemed to sing some praise for Puzzle Craft in my previous post. My point of it being something unlike anything I've played recently still stands, but after thinking about it and reading what others have to say about it, I can see where it would be a chore, a lot of effort with little payoff. I'll see this game through to the end but I can see where it has its faults.

On an unrelated note, if you haven't played around with the latest iOS 6 beta and therefore do not have some idea of what to expect, well there is a chance that on or around the 12th iOS 6 should be released as Apple is holding a press event for the iPhone 5 that day as invitations for it were sent out today. I only have an iPod Touch but I've played around with iOS 6 beta 4 and do enjoy what I've seen so far. The new stuff with the App Store is nice and being able to post status updates and tweets from the notification bar is nice as well.

THOR: Son of Asgard is free.
http://itunes.apple.com/app/thor-son...433558156?mt=8

Reckless Racing 2 is free. I actually bought this one, so, you're welcome.

I had a lot of fun with Reckless Racing 2 and don't regret having paid for it. Great game.

Double Fine's Middle Manager of Justice is out. But it is freemium. Not sure if they've done it right or not as I haven't tried it yet. The theme is certainly amusing, though.

http://appshopper.com/games/middle-manager-of-justice

Originally Posted by _heretic THOR: Son of Asgard is free. http://itunes.apple.com/app/thor-son...433558156?mt=8

How is it?

Originally Posted by crunchewy I had a lot of fun with Reckless Racing 2 and don't regret having paid for it. Great game. Double Fine's Middle Manager of Justice is out. But it is freemium. Not sure if they've done it right or not as I haven't tried it yet. The theme is certainly amusing, though. http://appshopper.com/games/middle-manager-of-justice

Looks like I'll have to wait a bit, not showing up in US store yet when viewed from my phone.

Yeah, I probably should have mentioned that Reckless Racing 2 was very good and that I don't regret paying for it either.

Actually apparently Middle Manager of Justice was pulled. There were problems with it and it wasn't going over too well on touch arcade anyway (read as "terrible"), but I'm not sure how much of that was due to the problems and how much was to do with the Freemium nature of it.

Hunter 1 just dropped to .99. Bought Hunter 2 while it was on sale for the same price, I guess I'll get this and play it first.

---

Wings of Valor just dropped to .99. It's iphone only but i'm about to pick it up for my ipad.

it's an homage to Wings of Fury on the Apple II, which was one of my absolute favorite games back then. Gets solid reviews as a remake, and the original was amazing.

It's a 2d plane flyer -- you can bomb and strafe, and you attack heavily fortified islands. You need to fly back and land on a carrier for fuel/repairs. I remember many, many hours spent loving this game... just barely making it back to your carrier, on fire, with just enough fuel for one high speed landing attempt. Awesome, awesome game.

EDIT -- if you get this, make sure to get Wings of Valor (the homage) and not 'Wings of Glory', which appears to be a cheap knockoff of them both

Originally Posted by crunchewy Actually apparently Middle Manager of Justice was pulled. There were problems with it and it wasn't going over too well on touch arcade anyway (read as "terrible"), but I'm not sure how much of that was due to the problems and how much was to do with the Freemium nature of it.

It was super glitchy.

Temple Run: Brave dropped to free for the first time.
http://appshopper.com/games/temple-run-brave